Chocolate Covered Cinnamon Bears

This past Christmas, the Deyoung family gave us the traditional good neighbor basket/plate of goodies. Included were some chocolate covered cinnamon bears. I didn't know what they were. (When the bears are covered in chocolate, it's kind of hard to tell.) They looked good and I intended to eat them even though I didn't recognize them. No matter what. Chocolate was involved and I never pass it up. I just thought that they must be chocolate covered nuts. I bit into one expecting a crunch and instead encountered a chewy, cinnamony goodness. I nearly squealed with delight and said to Ryan, "Oh, these aren't nuts, they're cinnamon bears!!!" Gobble. Gobble. Gobble. His response was kind of "Huh. Whatever." I loved them and had to keep myself from eating the whole bag right then and there. I determined that I would make more for myself. I wanted to be able to enjoy this treat all throughout the year. Well, thus began a long, eight month journey. Since Christmas, I have been searching for cinnamon bears. Nobody seemed to carry them. Why are they so hard to find? Why did everyone want to make me sad?

I finally found some on Friday at Super Saver of all places. They're the Albertson's brand, they own Super Saver. I don't go there very often. I usually only go when they have a sale on some type of meat and I want to stock up. They were in the candy and cracker/cookie aisle. Strange that they would be in the candy aisle. When I saw them I had the same reaction I did when I had my first taste of a chocolate covered one. I screamed and yelled "CINNAMON BEARS!" My kids thought that I was crazy. I ran the 3 feet over to them and practically ripped the bag getting it off the hanger thingy. I immediately marched to the baking aisle and bought milk chocolate chips and the rest is history. I melted half a bag of chips in the microwave at 20 second intervals, stirring in between, until it was melted and smooth. I then dumped in a few bears at a time, stirring to evenly coat them and then placed them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. (I only used about half of the bag of bears as well. So half a bag of chips will pretty generously cover half a bag of bears.) I then put them in the refrigerator until they set up. It only took about 20 minutes. They are so good. I didn't realize until I started searching for a picture of these little yummies that they are probably a Utah exclusive thing. BYU exclusive to be exact. (This makes sense because the Deyoung's are big BYU fans.) I found a blog of someone who now lives out of state, but told of her discovery of them while at BYU and how sad she feels that she can't get them where she is now. Well, here's the answer. Just make them yourself.